The most famous Comet of all! G-ACSS
named Grosvenor House after the hotel of the owner of the plane A.O.
Edwards. The plane was flown by C.W.A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black in
the London to Melbourne race and arrived first in Melbourne, winning the
speed contest. It would have won the handicap race too but for the rule
that only one title could be one by any one plane. The first place in
the handicap race thereby went to the Douglas DC-2 "De Uiver" owned by the Dutch airline KLM.

Grosvernour House was painted bright red
and recent evidence suggests that the lettering was silver and not white
as many sources say.

After the race G-ACSS was acquired by the
Air Ministry and painted aluminum. It got the RAF serial K-5084. During
the tests at the RAF at Martlesham it twice suffered a collapsed
undercarriage. After the first collapse it was fitted with enlarged air
intakes. After the second crash in September 1936 it was sold as
scrap.

It was bought by F.E. Tasker who had the
aircraft rebuilt and fitted with Gypsy Six series II engines. It was
painted pale blue or light grey with dark blue accents
(according to one source "Morning Mist"
& Blue) and named "The Orphan". In this guise it came
fourth in the 1937 Marseilles-Damascus-Paris race and second in the 1937
King's Cup.

In November 1937 it tried to break the
out and home record to the Cape named "The Burberry". It
succeeded in lowering the record to 15 days and 17 hours.

In February 1938 it left for Australia
named "Australian Anniversary" from which it returned in March
1938.

For the next 13 years it was stored. In
1951 is was restored to static condition and displayed at the De
Havilland company premises. In 1965 it was donated to the Shuttleworth
Trust and brought to Old Warden. There the restoration to flying
condition began culminating in the first flight of G-ACSS for 49 years
in 1987. It flew until the closure of Hatfield airfield in 1993 but was
kept in taxiable condition at Old Warden. The extension of the runway
there lead to a complete overhaul of the aircraft and it will take to
the air again in 2002.